Dulcinea
"Dulcinea" is the series premiere and first episode in the first season of The Expanse. The first episode debuted on-demand in advance of its December 14, 2015 premiere date. Synopsis In the asteroid belt near Saturn, James Holden and the crew of the ice freighter Canterbury investigate a distress call from a mysterious derelict ship, the Scopuli. On Ceres, Station, Detective Miller begins an off-the-books investigation of a missing heiress, Julie Mao. Recap }} We begin, rather ominously, with a young woman, floating in tight metal quarters in zero gravity. We hear the sounds of some sort of commotion from outside her room, then silence. She calls for help. She can't get out. She checks her water supply … two precious drops float in front of her face, as if mocking her. She guides them to her lips and swallows. Finally, she manages to break free of the room, donning a space suit labeled with the name JULIE and the word SCOPULI. She puts on magnetic boots that allow her to move about in the gravity-less environment. As we will soon learn, this woman's name is Julie Mao. She explores her seemingly deserted environment, noticing what looks like blood by the airlock door and an S.O.S. signal coming from the Engineering Bay. She stifles a shriek as a spacesuit floats past her … was there anybody inside it? She makes her way to the Engineering Bay, which is enveloped in what looks like unstable blue lightning. A deformed figure cries out as it's sucked into this vortex, and the woman screams … Now we're on Ceres, an asteroid that's been transformed into the most vital port in The Belt. As we learn from an angry street preacher, Ceres was once covered in ice … until Mars and Earth stole it all. The preacher rails against the slave-like conditions of the Belters who work the docks, living in a world where their air and water are rationed … and warns of an impending war between Mars and Earth, with Ceres caught in the middle. Here we meet , a hard-boiled, hard-drinking, hat-wearing detective for Star Helix Security — and, according to the preacher, a welwala — a traitor to his people. He's showing the ropes to a new recruit, , with their first stop being at a brothel. Via a series of Belter gestures and phrases, Miller comforts a prostitute, Gia, whose john — a Belter gangster — has just been killed by unidentified assailants. Havelock notices how Belters have long, thin limbs and fingers — the results of living without normal gravity, or in "low-G," as the saying goes. Miller points out that Belters are very territorial and suspicious of those from Earth and Mars — "If you grew up with real sky over your head, and real gravity holding you on the ground, they're never going to trust you," he tells Havelock. Miller points out how you can spot those who are trying to hide the fact that they're Belters … until the bartender points out what gives away Miller himself: the spurs at the top of his spine where the bones didn't fuse right, the result of "cheap bone density juice" given to him when he was a ward of the state. Back at Star Helix Headquarters, Captain gives Miller his latest assignment: find Julie Mao, the daughter of Ariadne and of Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile. A poor little rich heiress, Julie defied her parents by becoming a member of a student protest movement known as the Far Horizons Foundation … and the champion pilot of a racing ship known as the Razorback. She's also the woman we met floating around in zero gravity in the very first scene. As Miller does his homework on Mao, including asking his ex-lover and fellow cop, , for her "woman's intuition" on the case, he has a change of heart about being on the take with , the owner of a sweatshop in which the children workers often develop "the Cough" due to the poor air filtration system. Miller throws Vargas into an airlock and lets him gasp for air himself for just long enough to make his point. Meanwhile on Earth, we meet , the U.N. Deputy Undersecretary, who's taken from an idyllic day with her husband Arjun Rao and grandson in her Westchester home to a U.N. black site, where U.N officials are interrogating Heikki Sobong, a member of the rabble-rousing Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) who's been accused of carrying contraband stealth technology. The OPA is a unsanctioned political group fighting for the Belt to become its own governing body. Sobong is naked except for his shorts, chained to a wall, standing under his own weight. That's all that's needed to torture him, as Earth's gravity crushes his fragile Belter bones and lungs. But Sobong's not talking. Avasarala tells her minions to leave him be for ten more hours and contact her if he survives. Meanwhile, in outer space, the ice trawler Canterbury is about to deliver a shipment to Ceres Station when the crew receives a distress signal. As an investigation would mean a late arrival and therefore losing their on-time bonuses, Captain opts to purge the message as if they never received it … a decision that doesn't sit right with Second Officer , whom the Captain has been courting to be the ship's new XO upon the old one going crazy. Holden's usually content to have as little responsibility as possible as he romances the ship's navigator Ade Nygaard in zero gravity, but something about that transmission bothers him … especially when he enhances it to reveal a woman's voice saying "Please help me." Unbeknownst to the crew except for the Canterbury's chief engineer, , Holden logs the message with HQ, which means the ship is now obliged to investigate. After performing a painful, high-G "flip and burn," the Canterbury approaches a wounded ship in the dead of space: the Scopuli. Holden, Naomi, med-tech officer , pilot and mechanic take theCanterbury's shuttle, the Knight, to get a closer look and board the Scopuli (you'll recall, we saw Julie Mao at the beginning of the episode on a flightsuit that said "Scopuli"). They find no trace of any survivors (or our own Julie Mao) … and hightail it out of there once Captain McDowell informs them that an unidentified ship has entered their vicinity. The mystery ship -- which Alex theorizes is Martian due to its advanced stealth tech -- fires torpedoes, which sail past the Knight and head straight for the Canterbury. Holden's lover, Ade, gives one last transmission: "There's something you should know …," before the Canterbury — and everyone on board — is blown to kingdom come.http://www.syfy.com/theexpanse/episodes/season/1/episode/1/dulcinea Cast Main *Thomas Jane as *Steven Strait as *Cas Anvar as *Dominique Tipper as *Wes Chatham as *Paulo Costanzo as *Florence Faivre as *Shohreh Aghdashloo as *Shawn Doyle as Guest Starring *Jay Hernandez as *Athena Karkanis as *Brian George as Arjun RaoThe Expanse Photos - Dulcinea 10 of 19 *Joe Pingue as *Kristen Hager as *Julian Richings as Vargas *Jonathan Banks as Executive Officer *Lola Glaudini as Captain Co-Starring *Adrian Nguyen as Riker *Carson Durven as Little Girl's Father *Cody Schnidermann as Interrogator #1 *Jane Moffat as Brothel Madam *Joe Delfin as Heikki Sabong *Kevin Alves as Deck Cadet *Krista Morin as Rebecca Byers *Kyle Gatehouse as Gaunt Belter *Michael Murray as Detective Cobb *Ronnie Rowe Jr. as Cameron Paj *Russell Yuen as Interrogator #2 *Sara Mitich as Gia *Matia Jackett as Young Belter Girl *Yatharth Bhatt as Avasarala Grandson #1 Notes * The episode title was revealed on the show's IMDB page in November or December 2014. * The title is one of many references to Don Quixote in the book and TV series, where Dulcinea is the name of the fictionalized love interest of the novel's namesake. The word today either means simply "a man's sweetheart" http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dulcinea or it "implies hopeless devotion and love for her, and particularly unrequited love".Fun Facts: Season 1, Episode 1 . In other words, his imaginary love and muse. * Unlike the TV version, Chrisjen Avasarala did not make her debut until the second novel, Caliban's War. * Terry McDonough and Jonathan Banks previously worked on the TV series Breaking Bad. * The scene with Executive Officer is the first scene that was filmed on the first day of filming. * The planet Mars is named after the Roman god of war. * Due to living in low-gravity conditions, 'Belters' have fragile bones and long, spindly limbs and fingers. * Naomi's hand-flip signaling disgust is one of many Belter gestures, left over from the days of space suits with poor comms. * The Scopuli were the rocks on which the Sirens of Greek mythology sat and sang to sailors. It's also the name of the ship in which we might find our missing Julie Mao! * "Flip and burn" procedure requires the crew to be injected with 'the juice' - a drug cocktail that keeps them conscious at high-G, when a human body weighs over 500 kilos. It's a nasty and painful process. * When Ade uses the term "flying tea-kettle" she means that the Knight shuttle lacks an Epstein drive (which allows for fast, long distance travel) and therefore runs on steam propulsion. * The writer of The Expanse novels, James S.A. Corey, is actually the collective pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. 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